IFFY FUTURE FORECAST

Poem by Charles Frederickson

Graphic by Saknarin Chinayote 

Topsy-turvy third planet from Sun
Upside-down silk lining turned inside-out
Biofuel technological solutions replacing geological
Asteroid mining commercial solar power

Oceans cannot absorb greenhouse emissions
Cataclysmic climate effects current adrift
Digital radar storm tracking surveillance
Arctic shrinkage meltdown icebergs overturned

Handle With Care survival issues
Over-consumption splurge space tourism colonies
Funny business as usual until
Endangered resource depletion runs out

Nanotech manipulating nothing’s the matter
On quantum atomic molecular scale
Biosphere demands exceeding global biocapacity
Supply chain profit margins unlinked

Systematic holistic challenges about-face turnabout
Equitable sustainable cosmos needs different
Set of values bankrupting nature
Contaminated eco-environment next generation’s legacy

Regenerative telemedicine cloning dinosaur egg
Autonomous robots emotionless artificial intelligence
Discovering fast-forward ways toward happier
More contented resilient co-existence habitation

 No Holds Bard Dr. Charles Frederickson and Mr. Saknarin Chinayote proudly present YouTube mini-movies @ YouTube – CharlesThai1 .

High Country News, Solar Power, and Harper's

I usually skip over the High Country News quote of the week.  I will have to start checking it out more often.  I missed the quote at the turn of the year, U-District's Janine Blaeloch (Western Lands Project, just up the street), was quoted on big solar.

Currently, High Country News is looking for your stories about solar installation.  Specifically "What sort of permits did you (or your installer) have to get to put solar panels or a wind turbine on your house? Was it difficult or easy? E-mail details, including your location, to editor@hcn.org"

This week the quote of the week (about nullification) led me to High Country News' discussion of the Tiny Little Laws article by Kathie Dobie in Harper's.  It is a subscriber only article, but HCN calls the article well worth the price of the magazine.  While Dobie's article focuses on the problems of prosecution of sexual violence on tribal lands (in one area the local hospital did not have rape kits available for several years), the Denver Post published an interesting and troubling series of articles a few years back.  Women, children, and men fall between the cracks of different justice systems.   Federal prosecutors become federal prosecutors because they want to do high profile sexy cases about terrorists, drug lords, and conspirators, not community domestic problems.  And so what happens to a 7 year old girl 150 miles from the Spokane prosecutor's office gets pushed to the bottom of the pile, a 45 year old man beaten in a highway altercation is too far from Albuquerque for anyone to even interview. 

I feel less frustrated reading this issue's cover article in High Country News -- Utah's Sagebrush Rebellion Capital Mellows, about Kanab.  You may have heard about Kanab when they based the Natural Family Resolution, or because they are just up the road from Warren Jeff's Colorado City, or maybe just from their world famous animal shelter, Best Friends Sanctuary.   John Wayne stayed there, so did Clint Eastwood, the Lone Ranger, and Rin Tin Tin.  Kanab may have mellowed, but don't be surprised if you go down to the corner gas station with your old fashioned long hair, the guys hanging out might suggest that you need a haircut.